A nearby plant nursery uses this Sprinter box truck for their pickups and deliveries. With a factory GVM rating of 5,000 kg (11,023 lbs) it’s the heaviest Sprinter of the 2006-2018 second generation. That is, till September 2016, when a 5,500 kg version became available.
Rear-wheel drive and with dual rear wheels, just like the heavy-duty Ford Transits and Renault Masters, to name some direct competitors. Yet in Europe, the Iveco Daily surpasses all of them when it comes to sheer weight.
Neat, a roof spoiler for better aerodynamics and side underride guards, just like the big guys.
The little big truck is powered by a 2,143 cc inline-four turbodiesel, maximum power output 163 DIN-hp. Which brings us to the number 516 in the truck’s model designation: 5 metric tons factory GVM rating – 163 DIN hp.
The Sprinter left the Ludwigsfelde plant, south of Berlin, as a so called chassis-cab. That’s a rolling chassis with a complete cab. After that, it rolled or was brought to the Stürenberg Fahrzeugbau company, where they planted a boxy body on the Benz.
The truck is also equipped with a Belgian Dhollandia hydraulic cantilever liftgate.
I got this picture from the nursery’s website. The potted plants are placed in an open roll container for transport. You can seen them in the background of the fourth Sprinter picture.
Last year, Mercedes-Benz introduced their latest Sprinter generation. Above a new 516 CDI chassis-cab, all set and ready to get a bodybuilder treatment. For the first time, a front-wheel drive Sprinter is also available.
When a Sprinter is not heavy enough, then there’s the 6,500+ kg Atego line of trucks and tractors. Obviously a much bigger cab also comes with the package. The Atego has a tilt cab, with its own suspension.
Mercedes-Benz covers all segments of the commercial vehicle market, from the compact Citan panel van -although fully based on the Renault Kangoo- to the king-size Actros.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to water some plants.
My work has a small wheelbase of the same generation sprinter van. The boss finally took my advice and got a van for delivering the furniture we make, after years of a ford truck and trailer combination. He settled on the Mercedes after going to the local ford and dodge dealerships and waisting the better part of a day haggling. He had the keys for the Mercedes in 45 minutes. So far the accountant loves the fuel savings and to my knowledge it has only needed regular maintenance. Driving it feels like a bigger modern version of my eurovan. The only thing I can fault is the back up camera screen is near useless if there is any glare from the sun.
Your van looks a bit like this? It’s also used to transport furniture, as it says on its side. The wheelbase is 3,665 mm (144.3″), whereas the Sprinter in the article has a 4,325 mm wheelbase. The shorty-Sprinter of the second generation has a 3,250 mm wheelbase.
Yeah that’s the model. We looked at the longer wheel base one but this had been in stock for a while and had glass on the rear doors so we got a good deal. Also the longer ones would have bumped up the bill for crossing the ferry between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Just for giggles, I looked up the US version of the chassis/cab. The heaviest is rated to 12,125 lbs GVW (which I assume is the same as GVM?). Accounting for rounding errors, that’s 5,500kg. So we get the same truck!
Yep, Gross Vehicle Weight or Mass is the same.
A physicist would argue they most certainly aren’t 🙂
Yes, weight is variable based on the force of gravity in one’s location, while mass is constant, but as long as you’re staying on Earth, the variance is all but negligible, so they’re effectively the same. I don’t believe either either American or European vans are certified as lunar vehicles.
I think it’s Sprinter is a 3.5T GVW, not a 5t…
Depends on the driving license. If you have a car driving license only, then the GVW will be legally limited to 3,500 kg.
You need a C1 light truck license (3,500 to 7,500 kg GVW) to make full use of a heavy Sprinter model, like the one in the article.
That’s the problem with many motorhomes. With the people aboard, all the equipment and water-food-drinks-luggage, the GVW will rapidly exceed 3,500 kg.
The only Sprinters I’ve seen in the US with this type of model designation are older 316’s. They now seem to follow an American naming norm of 1500, 2500 etc through 4500, similar to RAM and GM pickups or the Ford pickup 150, 250 etc.
Based on a very enjoyable Sprinter passenger van rental experience, bought a chassis cab in the late aughts and had it upfitted for box truck duty. It took some haggling, but went 6in higher than the maximum recommended box height in order to enable deliveries of a high volume inventory item that was tall but not very dense.
Aside from blowing its intercooler piping off a few times, it gave great service until one of the shop kids who probably should not have been driving managed to total it. The Isuzu NPR it was bought to supplant outlived it by several years, but that’s a story for another time.
And betwen the Sprinter and Atego, in Brazil we have the Acello.
Thank you!
I just looked up more information, notably on the German Wikipedia site. There it says the Acello is based on the Atego chassis.
It falls into the light truck segment with a maximum width of 210 cm and a maximum length of 630 cm. (meeting the Brazilian urban truck regulations)